With the imminent withdrawal of the Aqua Reward Credit Card which paid 3% cashback, up to a maximum of £100 per year,

I have another two cashback credit cards but neither offer such a generous cashback as the Aqua Reward Credit Card. My Halifax Clarity Card has no annual fee and pays a £5 reward if I spent at least £300 a month, which equates to a rate of around 1.7%. However some months I don’t spend that much on credit cards and other months it’s annoying to spend more than £300 on that card and get no additional cashback. My Barclaycard World Mastercard (formerly an Egg card) has no annual fee and pays a flat rate of 1% on all purchases.

I decided to do a review of cashback credit cards currently (18 January 2014) on the market, to see if I could better my two current cards.

Santander 123 Credit Card

I looked at the Santander 123 Credit Card. The highest rate of cashback at 3% is paid on petrol/diesel and rail/Transport for London purchases. We don’t spend an awful lot annually on these. Spending at department stores earns 2% cashback. Again we don’t do much shopping there. The lowest rate of cahsback of 1% is paid on supermarket shopping. We do spend a fair amount there, but I can already earn at least 1% on that spending with my existing cashback credit cards. The Santander 123 Credit Card’s annual fee of £24 also put me off, although as I’m a <a< span=””> href=”http://www.helpmetosave.com/2012/03/santander-123-cashback-current-accout/”>Santander 123 Current Account holder, I’d get a refund of the first year’s fee.

As some categories of spending, e.g. hotels, flights and restaurants earn no cashback, I reckon I can earn more cashback on my existing cards than with a Santander 123 Credit Card.

AMEX Platinum Everyday

While the 5% cashback for the first three months on the AMEX Platinum Everyday card (up to a maximum spend of £2,000) sounds tempting, the standard rate of cashback is a measly 0.5% on spending of up to £3,500 per year. The cashback rate increases to 1% for annual spending between £3,500 – £7,500. The highest rate of 1.25% cashback is paid on spending of £7,5000. At least there’s no annual fee. I’ve had an AMEX cashback credit card in the past. It was pain, as it wasn’t accepted by all retailers.

I am tempted to apply for a a card to get the 5% cashback in the first three months, which could potentially earn £100 in cashback, but I’m not sure that I could spend that much in three months, especially as not all retailers accept payment by AMEX. If I were planning a large purchase at a retailer who would take AMEX, it’d be worthwhile getting the card.

As I’m unlikely to spend more than £7,500 on a credit card in one year, after the first year I’d earn less cashback than on my existing credit cards by using an AMEX Platinum Everyday.

Conclusion

I think that I’ll stick to my current Halifax Clarity and Barclaycard World Mastercard cashback cards. I like the fact there are no annual fees or excluded categories of spending on either card. The main disadvantage is trying to judge during which months I will spend at least £300 on a credit card in order to use the Halifax Clarity Card to earn the higher rate of cashback.